Oilers at Ducks preview

OILERS (10-10-1) at DUCKS (9-9-5)
4 p.m. ET, FS-W, SNW, NHL.TV

Hitchcock was hired Tuesday after Todd McLellan was fired. The Oilers won 4-3 in overtime at the San Jose Sharks in Hitchcock's first game behind the bench, but they are 2-6-0 in their past eight games.
Anaheim defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 at Honda Center on Wednesday after consecutive overtime losses to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche. The Ducks are 4-8-4 in their past 16 games.

Players to watch

Oilers center Connor McDavid has eight points (three goals, five assists) in a four-game point streak. He had eight points (one goal, seven assists) in four games against Anaheim last season.
Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past two games. He has six points (one goal, five assists) in his past three games against Edmonton.

They said it

"I found that the weight and the size and diligence of this team was really impressive. It's my job to get it out of them more and more as we move along, but we can play quick. We're not the fastest team in the National Hockey League but we can play quick." -- Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock
"[Getzlaf] is our captain. You see on the stat sheet, he's leading our offense night in, night out by scoring. He's not really been known over the [years] as a big scorer, more of a point guy who can create, but right now he's doing what we ask of him, and we're looking for some other people to join that wagon train." -- Ducks coach Randy Carlyle

Oilers projected lineup

Drake Caggiula -- Connor McDavid -- Leon Draisaitl
Ryan Spooner -- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Alex Chiasson
Milan Lucic --
Cooper Marody
-- Ty Rattie
Jujhar Khaira -- Kyle Brodziak -- Zack Kassian
Oscar Klefbom -- Adam Larsson
Darnell Nurse -- Kris Russell
Kevin Gravel -- Matt Benning
Mikko Koskinen
Cam Talbot
Scratched:Patrick Russell, Jason Garrison
Injured:Tobias Rieder (upper body)

Ducks projected lineup

Rickard Rakell -- Ryan Getzlaf -- Ondrej Kase
Pontus Aberg -- Adam Henrique -- Jakob Silfverberg
Andrew Cogliano -- Ryan Kesler -- Kiefer Sherwood
Nick Ritchie --
Kalle Kossila
-- Brian Gibbons
Jacob Larsson -- Josh Manson
Josh Mahura
-- Brandon Montour
Marcus Pettersson -- Andy Welinski
John Gibson
Ryan Miller
Scratched: Ben Street, Jake Dotchin
Injured: Carter Rowney (upper body), Corey Perry (knee surgery), Cam Fowler (facial fractures), Patrick Eaves (back spasms), Hampus Lindholm (upper body)

Status report

Ritchie was moved from the second line to the fourth line against Vancouver and was credited with an assist for the third straight game, matching his longest point streak in the NHL.

Stat pack

Seven of the past nine regular-season games between the Ducks and Oilers have been decided by one goal, including five that went past regulation. The Ducks also won a seven-game series against the Oilers in the 2017 Western Conference Second Round.